I turned off of the road up the quiet track that led through the trees, the hoot of an owl calling out somewhere above me. I followed the outer fence and circled the property until I reached the gap in it, dismounting from my bike and parking it up behind a large tree. A smile pulled at my mouth as I found Maverick's motorcycle there already too.
I squeezed through the gap where a bar was missing in the fence which I'd once been able to slip through so easily, but now it took a little more effort. On the other side, I followed the track through the weeds, jogging into the darkened trees before heading up to the old summer house. Mrs Rosewood never used this place anymore. It sat on the edge of an empty swimming pool that had algae growing up the sides of it and an inch of rainwater at the bottom.
The lights were on inside the little building and I grinned as I hurried forward to find Maverick, the relief of escaping my dad and being able to hang out with my friend making this whole shitty night seem miles better already.
But I fell still before I got there, my heart thumping unevenly as I frowned at what I was witnessing through the window. Maverick had his back to me, standing completely naked. My heart squeezed and I shook my head at the sight of Rogue standing just beyond him with her top off, her breasts exposed, her dark hair tumbling messily all over her shoulders. Her expression was full of something I knew well, because I'd felt it for her a thousand times. Lust.
And it hit me with the force of a fucking car crash what I was seeing.
She wanted Maverick. She'd chosen Maverick. After all these years. After me, Fox, JJ and him had all pined after her and she'd refused to see it. Refused to fucking acknowledge it. And here she was, making the choice we'd hope she'd all make for us. But now she was making it for him. For him.
I backed up until I couldn't see them anymore then pressed my back to a tree and dragged in air as I tried to breathe. But my lungs weren't working and my heart was breaking, falling to pieces like shards of glass as it pierced everything inside me. I'd wanted her before I could even remember I wanted her. She'd been my girl. But she'd been their girl too. I'd been able to accept that when we were younger, it had made things tense now we were older, but it had never affected our loyalty to one another. I'd wanted her to choose me almost as much as I hadn't wanted her to choose me. Because if she had, I would have been responsible for fracturing our entire group. And now that was what was happening. She was choosing Maverick. Offering her body to him. Letting him touch her in all the ways I'd hungered to.
My head spun and I felt sick, but most of all I felt angry. Rage filled me to the brim until I could sense my father's blood pounding in my veins, and taste some of the fury he'd spewed for so many years. I was blinded by the hurt and I didn't know what I'd do with it. Didn't know how to deal with it.
I started running toward the fence, squeezing through the gap and grabbing my bike, fighting the urge to kick Maverick's motorcycle to the ground and break it like I wanted to break him in that moment. He was my friend, how could he do this? How could he claim her?
The truth spoke as a cold voice in the back of my head and I knew I couldn't hate him for this. Because I would have done the same if she'd chosen me. I would have claimed her and kept her as mine for the rest of eternity if she'd wanted me. But she didn't. She'd discarded me. But even now I knew the truth, I wasn't prepared to let go of her. I wanted to fight until my last breath for her.
Maybe my father had been right. Maybe I was nothing. Maybe she'd seen that too.
I soared down the hill, having nowhere to go. No home I wanted to return to. I couldn't call JJ or Fox. I couldn't tell them what I'd seen. I wouldn't be responsible for breaking their hearts. That was on Rogue and Maverick now. This clearly wasn’t the first time they’d gotten together like that. You didn’t go from nothing to screwing in one night so there must have been more, stolen kisses, secret meetings – was this why she hadn’t come to meet me in the arcade last week when she said Mary Beth had almost caught her trying to sneak out? Was that a lie? And what about when Maverick had said his bike broke down the week before that? I didn’t think anything of it in the moment, but had the breadcrumbs been there this entire time? Were they just lying to our faces every damn day, hoping we wouldn’t find out? Well if that was how they wanted to play it, if they wanted to keep this as some dirty little secret between them, then fine.
I made it to the beach, throwing my bike down in the sand as I stalked off to delve into the shadows under the pier. Where the newly awoken monster in me wanted to dwell. And where the darkness could feast on my broken heart.
F ollowing our way too lengthy, way too naked conversation, I had done the somewhat mortifying and yet seemingly fair thing and flashed Maverick my tits one more time. I gave him a couple of minutes to stare the way I’d been staring while I blushed so savagely that I was certain I must have looked like a beetroot then I snatched the clean t-shirt he'd found amongst Chase's stuff and dragged it on to cover myself up again. It had a skeleton riding a motorcycle on it which had been Chase's go-to look since he'd outgrown the Power Rangers. I however refused to outgrow the Power Rangers ever and Maverick got a look at my Green Ranger panties when I was forced to ditch my paint covered shorts too. I had no shame either. Green Ranger for life. And anyone who didn't agree was wrong. Fact.
Luckily, Chase was going through a stage where he thought it looked cool to wear shirts like three sizes too big for him so the thing fit me like a dress - a dress my ass was hanging out of a bit, but so long as my tits were covered I was cool with it. Mostly. At this point I was just going to call it a win.
Maverick had also stolen a shirt and had thankfully put his dick away. Not that the mental image would be leaving me any time soon. I mean, I'd watched some stuff online and seen photos of dicks before but shit, I did not realise they were so big and intimidating. I also hadn't realised how much Rick clearly liked his because apparently he thought that us flashing each other was a great thing and he had subsequently offered to show me his cock again about sixteen times while we hung out and waited for the cops to be gone for good.
It was probably a good thing that there were no beers stashed in the summer house because a bit of me kinda wanted to see it again. But I was pretty sure admitting that would be like saying I wanted to do something else with it and the thought of that terrified me. And excited me. And terrified me again.
Wow, cocks were scary - good to know. I was probably going to have to work on that at some point, but maybe I'd ease into it with like kissing and hands and stuff... And maybe not with one of my boys. Although the alternative seemed much worse. Strange dick sounded even fucking scarier.
Fuck that. I was good waiting a bit longer to enter the cock minefield. If I could believe the things half the guys said in the group home, the damn things were basically primed to explode at any given moment anyway and I really wasn't ready to deal with that. Probably. But I was thinking about Maverick's quite a lot now so there was that.
We headed back through the streets and I didn't even bother trying to make Rick let me drive this time. I was tired and somewhat dick blinded and was happy to just wrap my arms around his waist and close my eyes as he wound through the familiar streets and took me home.